31 Mar 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYCH 1200 – CH 12 (Personality & Freud)
Personality traits – consistent (greater w/adulthood) behaviour over time & across different situations
o Characterize individual’s’ customary ways of responding to their world
Personality – distinctive & relatively enduring ways of thinking, feelings, & acting that characterize a person’s responses
to life situations
1. Components of identity that distinguish individual from other ppl
2. Behaviours viewed as being caused primarily by internal rather than environmental factors
3. Behaviours seem to “fit together” meaningfully inner personality guides & directs behaviour
- Guided by psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behavioural, cognitive, & socio-cultural perspectives provide
conceptions of what personality is & how it functions
Theory – (1) provides a comprehensive framework w/in which known facts can be incorporated (2) allows us to predict
future events w/some precision & (3) stimulates the discovery of new knowledge
Psychodynamic theorists – look for causes of behaviour in a dynamic interplay of inner forces that often conflict w/one
another focus on unconscious determinants of behaviour
Conversion Hysteria – physical symptoms (i.e. paralysis, blindness, etc.) appear suddenly w/no apparent physical cause
^ Freud – related to [repressed] painful memories & feelings; made patients re-experience traumatic memories/feelings
(usually sexual/aggressive) unconscious mind exerts great influence on behaviour
Psychoanalysis – theory of personality, approach to studying the mind, & method for treating psychological
disorders
o Personality = energy system Psychic energy – powers the mind & constantly presses for direct or indirect
release (ex. Build-up of energy from sexual drives, direct: sexual interaction; indirect: sexual fantasies)
Conscious – mental events that we are presently aware of
Preconscious – memories, thoughts, feelings, & images that we are unaware/not thinking of at the time
Unconscious – wishes, feelings, & impulses that lie beyond our awareness (i.e. dreams, [Freudian] slips)
Id – unconscious mind; deepest principal of personality, only structure at birth, & source of all psychic energy; no direct
contact w/reality & functions in a totally rational manner; repressed wishes & conflicts
Pleasure principle – seeks immediate gratification/release
Ego – primarily conscious; Reality principle – tests reality to decide when & under what conditions the id can safely
satisfy its needs
Executive of the personality – compromise between demands of id, constraints of superego, & demands of reality
Superego – (developed by 4 or 5) moral; source for values & ideals of society, internalized through identification
w/parents & training of “right” & “wrong”
o Self-control, control over instincts of id; moralistic goals over realistic ones, regardless potential cost
Defence mechanism – (unconscious) deny/distort reality (due to ego confronting threatening impulses anxiety,
realistic strategies ineffective in reducing)
o Reliance on defence mechanisms (denial & distortion of reality) = primary cause of maladaptive or dysfunctional
behaviour
Repression – (Freud) ego uses some energy to prevent anxiety-arouses memories, feelings, & impulses from
entering consciousness (may be released indirectly)
Sublimation – repressed impulse released in form of socially acceptable/admired behaviour
Denial – refuse to acknowledge anxiety-arousing aspects
Displacement – unacceptable/dangerous impulse repressed then directed at safer substitute
Intellectualization – emotion connected w/upsetting event repressed & dealt w/as intellectually interesting event
Projection – unacceptable impulse repressed then projected onto other ppl
Rationalization – person constructs false but plausible explanation/excuse for anxiety-aroused behaviour/event
that has already occurred
Reaction formation – anxiety-arousing impulse repressed & its psychic energy finds release in exaggerated
expression of opposite behaviour
Erogenous zones – pleasure-sensitive areas of the body
Freud’s stages of psychosexual development –
Oral (0-2), EZ: mouth weaning
Anal (2-3), EZ: anus toilet training
Phallic (4-6), EZ: genitals resolving Oedipus complex